My Vision for Idaho.
Why I am running for the Idaho Senate, and what I will do.
My consultants advised me to keep my message simple. While that is a good idea in this day and age of headline attention spans, it doesn’t mean I can’t simply tell you the substance of my mission in running for the Idaho Senate.
In a nutshell, I value individual liberty, which is really the right to self-government (this includes your right to govern your own families, churches and businesses). Both the state and the federal constitutions recognize the rights of individuals to self-govern in most aspects of their lives, and these constitutions prescribe a limited authority to the state and federal governments. My mission is to:
1. Value and protect individual liberties.
These liberties include those enumerated in the state and federal constitutions and those granted by our Creator. My mission will be to restrain encroachments on individual liberty from all levels of civil government.
2. Uphold the constitutional authority of the state of Idaho in relation to the federal government and prevent the usurpations of that authority by an overreaching federal government.
Idaho is already constitutionally authorized and must actively oppose federal power grabs, like when the Feds try to unconstitutionally seize power from the state by massive federal cash infusions to the state with unconstitutional strings attached.
The constitutional boundary between federal and state power is only effective if the state enforces the boundary.
3. Enforce the boundaries that exist between the several branches of government.
During the Covid era, we have seen these boundaries obliterated. Legislatures make laws, not governors, Presidents, nor judges.
The Idaho legislature must actively fight for their constitutionally granted lawmaking authority and resist power grabs by activist judges, overzealous governors, Presidents and un-elected bureaucratic agencies. The legislature is closest to the people and is best positioned to fight for the interests of all Idahoans.
“A Republic, if you can keep it”.
When asked whether we had a monarchy or something else, Benjamin Franklin declared the United States were to be a Republic, if we the people can keep it.
But even North Korea calls itself the Democratic Republic of North Korea. In order to keep our American Republic, we must know what it is that we are to safeguard.
And the answer is that America was the first ever 7 boundary constitutional republic. The boundaries are found in our state and federal constitutions and are these:
Boundary 1. There is a division and a boundary between state and federal power. The duties of the Feds are few, limited and specifically listed in the US Constitution. All other power rests with the people and the states. For the nerds, this state/federal power balance is called “dual federalism”.
Boundaries 2,3,4. At the federal level, there are designed into the system checks and balances between the three branches of government, the legislature (The US House and the US Senate), which makes laws, the executive branch that consists of the President, and the federal judiciary consisting of the federal courts.
None of these branches were designed to reign supreme over the other branches; rather, they were all given separate duties and powers.
Boundaries 5,6,7. Like at the federal level, the state government consists of three branches, the state legislature that writes law that is consistent with the constitutions, the executive branch of the governor and other directly elected officials that enforce the laws (including Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Controller, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction), and the state courts that determine the application of the laws in disputes.
Boundaries are only as effective as their enforcement. If a neighbor regularly hunts all of the deer on my land, the boundary shown on the maps to be between us is ineffective if I, the land owner, never enforce the property line.
Likewise, it is up to the state to restrict unconstitutional federal power grabs, and it is up to the individual branches of government to block unconstitutional power grabs by the other branches.
We cannot keep our Republic if we do not understand its design. As your state senator, I will fulfill my small role to keep our republic, as designed, for all Idahoans and particularly for the 53,000 or so people who live in North Idaho.
